1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to the field of resource planning and scheduling, and, more particularly, to a system and method for generating schedules that model the processes involved in the exploitation of petroleum reservoirs.
2. Description of the Related Art
The exploration and producing (E&P) industry is challenged by making large capital investments in facilities (e.g., well production platforms, pipelines, and processing production facilities) and wells over a long time period, often a number of years, prior to oil and gas production and revenue generation. During this long period of facility construction and well drilling and completion, there exists the potential for a number of events that increase project risks and threaten expected economic returns. These include lack of drilling rig availability, increases in the cost of rig procurement, adverse weather conditions, destabilizing political events, unforeseen construction delays, and poor drilling conditions. Also, during the period of time in which the industry is planning and constructing the facilities, new information about the underlying oil and gas resources in the reservoirs is developed and leads to uncertainty in the number and location of wells needed eventually to develop the resource. Thus, there exists a substantial need for a system and methodology capable of generating schedules that take into account the effects of uncertain events of various kinds.
As used herein the term “facility” refers to a system that receives one or more streams of fluids from a set of wells and/or other facilities, and outputs one or more separate streams of gas, oil, and water to a set of storage vessels, pipelines, or other facilities. Facility is used as a general term to encompass oil and gas field gathering systems, processing platform systems, and well platform systems.